At this point, we predict that there will be two competing sets of Propositions on the November 2nd 2010 State Ballot: our set of two Initiatives will be the only democratic choice. The other choice will be the well financed set of Initiatives that will use computer selection processes to select delegates: Grand Jury Style. Repair California does not make any legal language available, so no one to date, can see what they are up to. Why is Repair California taking so long? Because they must draft their language to accommodate the Big Business Finance Wing of the Republican Party. Regardless of who participates as a mouthpiece, the funding and major backing of Repair California is the Bay Area Council: Chevron, ATT, Bank of America, the Federal Reserve Banking System, Walmart and others. This is what we are all up against. The Repair California Big Business Initiatives will be the only choice on the November Ballot - if we are not successful in Organizing California now. These facts are not shared with those who are financially contributing money to the Courage Campaign. Routinely, no representative of the California Action Network is allowed on any stage with the Big Money Teams - arrayed against us. It is up to you.
We will file our petition sets on Friday January 8th, 2010, regardless of what we have completed at that time. If we do not qualify, there will not be a democratic process used to determine Convention Delegates. Given the mood of California Voters - there will be a Constitutional Convention. Will it be a Peoples Convention or a Big Business Convention? That choice is yours alone as of now. Join us.
All signed petitions are due to our Local County Campaign Staff by noon on Thursday, January 7th 2010.
The campaign must Certify Specific Petition Filing Persons for each of all 58 Counties in California. Each of our Certified Petition Filing People (they must be certified by the both our State Campaign and the Department of Elections in each Local County where they will file) must have the original copies of all our Legal Declarations of all our Petition Circulators for that specific County, in their possession, along with all petitions, that have any signatures on them, in order to file our Initiatives. If you have petitions with one signature, turn them in, or they will not be filed. The Petition Circulator's Legal Declarations will be time stamped by the various Local County Department of Election Staff, and copied, and only then will the Local Officials allow our Certified Filing People to file each Initiative. We will file both our Initiative Petitions at the same time, all over California, in all 58 Counties, at once. We will not know if we qualified for the November 2nd, 2010 Ballot for about 2 to 3 weeks after we file. This is now a full court press. The ball is in your hands. By giving you the Printer Definition Files to print your own petitions, we place the ball in play - all across California. Do not screw this thing up. We are all in this together. Benjamin Franklin said at a very similar time in recent history: "We had all better hang together, as most assuredly we will certainly hang alone."
Now, we do not know how anyone expects the campaign to comply with the election law, and the Fair Political Practices Commission Legal Filings of all campaign contribution reports, without an office, and staff. I don't even have a printer. No one likes to hear it, but my work to date is out of a 12 x 18 foot room, where I live. My poverty does not mean I don't count. I am just one of the millions who dont have work, because there is no work. There is no startup finance for people ruined, like me. Still, I have a vote. I have the right to call for a Statewide Sanity Check. Maybe I fall into a new social class: Political Entrepreneur?
I do not physically have the room for the 150 Cases of Paper it will take to print and distribute the amount of presswork needed to prepare the paper for the 10 signatures per petition - per petition set. From my home, I can reasonable process and ship 10 Cases of Petitions per week. That will cost about $7,000 to $10,000 dollars per week, per 10 case pressrun. Basic Staff costs $5,000 to $10,000 per week. We have none. I can not do this alone. I am personally stretched like taffy and I break down. Given that we raised less than $2,000 over 2 months, I don't see how this will work, unless you all dig deep now. When I ask for people to contribute what they can, everyone tells me to go ask over there and go ask over-there. I ask you (personally) now. "Over-Here and overt-there did not work". We need you individually to help. Regardless, we press on. We keep walking. We keep talking. To be honest, I am so over all the character building. I continue, because I speak for all who have no voice, and no seat at any table.
People listen to and respond within their circles of trust. You know others who trust you. No one knows me. Forget about me. This is about you. What can you do? Talk to your family. Talk to your friends. Talk to your colleagues and co-workers. Talk to your Church Group. Talk to your Union Brothers and Sisters in the Rank and File. Talk to your PTA Friends. There are over 10,000 PTA Groups in California alone. Are you happy our Schools are ranked 50 out of all 50 States?
My hope was to gather 1.5 million signatures. 700,000 valid signatures on each petition (we have two petitions - one per Initiative) qualifies democracy for the November 2nd 2010 Ballot. If you fail, democracy will not be on the ballot on November 2010. The only Initiatives on the November Ballot will be the two Big Business Initiatives - backed by the National and State Republican Party Major Money Teams. If democracy is to have a chance in California, it really is up to you - personally.
This is doable! If 10,000 petition circulators get 100 signatures each on both petitions and we qualify! If 60 people in each of every 80 Assembly Districts gather into teams of 3 (3 people per table) and set up tables in high traffic public places, that is 30 tables x 80 Assembly Districts per weekend. 2,400 table-teams per weekend collecting 100 signatures each - is 240,000 signatures per weekend. The real control of our campaign is now in your hands. Yes, our campaign needs money. But what is critical is signatures on paper. If you decide to print your own petitions - be careful and follow the directions below to the letter!
With everyone printing petitions all over, this is a real record keeping mess. Keep walking. Keep talking. Please do keep all your receipts, and records of all "in Kind" contributions, so we can file our public disclosure reports in conformity to California State Law. I will take the boxes of receipts to a bookkeeper and dump that work on them, given we have the money to pay the bookkeeper. If no one sends in money, I will do the work my self. I am not ashamed that I have hit days and nights of deep despair. I am only human. So many have doubted that our Printed Petitions were actually printed and ready to ship since August 28th 2009. That is a fact. Without your support and contributions we can not pay any of our mounting expenses: staff; the printer; pay for paper, pay for phones, the internet, and shipping. We are up against the wall here, and we face well funded opposition campaigns, that do not want any democratic election of delegates. Most importantly we face an opposition that most certainly does not want the people of California have at the absolute failure of the current State Government in Sacramento. Why would we face such well funded opposition? Because they already own the best State Government money can and did buy. Maybe in time, the Unions and Churches will join us. Maybe the major donors who support democracy will join us. When we qualify, they will all want to say they were there from day one. Well, we are alone. Keep walking. Keep talking. This is up to us and nobody else.
If we do not qualify for the November 2010 Statewide Ballot, there will not be a Constitutional Convention with democratic processes provided for in California. If you support democracy in California, this is your call to action. There will be a Constitutional Convention in 2011. It will be ours or theirs. Will it be run by the "We the People" or will it be structured and controlled by "Big Business and Big Government"? That is your choice. What will you do? The question is on the table now. Go look in the mirror and ask your own self what you support. The way this is playing out, you support one or the other - no matter what you do. As of October 17th, we have 84 days left to raise 700,000 valid signatures on both petitions in our petition sets. Big Labor has called us. They fear losing the Labor Law already in our State Constitution. I pointed out they will lose that and more if they side with Big Business. What will Labor lose in a Big Business Conclave? We have everything to gain and everything to lose. This is very very real. Without the support of the people, what do you think we will all lose that we have not lost already? Are our jobs coming back? Are the Banks going to return people's homes? Will our State Parks be returned by those who now buy them for private commercial real estate development? Will the private developers really return our public school properties after their Charter Schools Fail? Will our State Pubic Systems of Higher Education ever be free to all who worked so hard to get good grades, regardless of financial hardship and economic background? Will labor ever keep a living wage - or will we all work at Walmart wages in the future? Do you think for a minute that Big Business wants a second economic bill of rights in California's new Constitution? This is not a rant. These are the facts. If you expect Washington DC to help us, do you really expect Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Arkansas to deliver any votes to help California? People, we have to help our selves. California is our State. California is our House!
Our campaign is literally in your hands now.
The exact text as filed of our proposed California Constitution Article 37 is here, for you to study. To stop the questions: I wrote both Initiatives myself. I was born at Stanford and graduated from Palo Alto Public High School in 1970. I was smart enough to earn entrance to and graduate from UC Berkeley in 1975. I worked as a Congressional Aide to the Honorable Ronald Dellums. I am not new to legal processes and Constitutions.
No campaign staff has been paid one penny to date. Only a few dedicated souls have worked as hard as possible, and I have no idea how much longer they will work without pay. We have recruited a handful of top professional organizers who will direct the campaign forward. It is up to you. By placing these files in your hands - you need not donate to our campaign. But ask your selves, how will we survive to bring this into the 58 Local County Offices for all of you? This is not a joke. We call for unity. Where are those who fund and support the need for Single Payer? Where are those who want to end 3 Strikes? Where are the Marriage Equality People? Where is the Majority Rule Faction? Where are those who want a Second Economic Bill of Rights in California? Where is everybody? For two months we have asked for less than $2,200. Where is everybody?
What is California and your quality of life, and of the lives of all future generations worth to you? Peanuts? If so, that is what we will all get forward. If this - YOUR CAMPAIGN - is going to work, it is really up to you forward, for only a few short months - all of you: individually and collectively. That is all the time we have, or we will have lost. You are the people of California. Will you and your friends sponsor this effort to save democracy in California? You will or you will not. By doing nothing, you personally are responsible and allow the Corporate Takeover of our Commonwealth by your inaction. Either way, you are responsible and accountable. You can Organize California or watch TV. It really is your free choice alone. There is no other Initiative that provides for your democratic participation in the process of calling our Constitutional Convention, and your opportunity to become a delegate.
This is it.
If you think that someone else is going to do this - think again. If you dont help - no one will help. It starts with you. You must email your friends the link to this page. You must make the motion at your Democratic Club. You must make the motion at your Union Meeting, Church Group, and PTA. You must collect signatures. If you really want to help - send us money every month. Send $5, $10, $20, $100. Ask your groups, clubs, teams, PTA (everyone) to send in $500 and $1,000. We need the oxygen of politics or we faint away and fail.
If your Fellow Union Brothers and Sisters, your Church, your School Group, your fellow Students, Teachers, Nurses, Friends, and Neighbors, your Political Club, your Small Business Association, Lyons Club, and so forth.... if you want the use of American democratic processes, provided in our call to a California Constitutional Convention, then this is your wake up call. This is really all about you. Read the text - read it. We have provided respect, empowerment and inclusion of every one - from the John Birch Society to the most Politically Left Fringe and everyone in between. When we elect delegates, we will select the best our Local Communities have to offer - to represent us all.
If you really want to support this grassroots "all people of California" shoestring operation, we really need your monthly commitment to
send money to this - your campaign's overhead. Our opposition will spend $50 Million to $150 Million to defeat us and to stage the Corporate Takeover of California that has hosted the Forums up and down California for months now. We can do this if Californian's all over our State pitch in and collectively make a stand together. As the author, I have had the pleasure of talking to all sides. We can listen to the positions of everyone, on all issues, we can argue and debate - and then vote. That is democracy and that is the business of our Elected Delegates. This is a call to all of California to wake up! The fact of the matter is everyone matters. This process belongs to everyone. We either take charge of the ownership of California or abdicate ownership to the coming privatization by Big Business and their front group - Repair California. What is your choice? Do nothing, and Big Business and the Government they already own takes over. Or, you can fight like hell for all you hold dear! The debates over the language of our new Constitution belong to our Elected Delegates. We can fight it out over all our differences at the Convention. Or - we the people - will be engineered right out of the process. Haven't you had enough of politics as usual? When are you going to matter to Big Government, and when is government going to matter to you? We would like to advertise on Facebook. We need money to do that.
The legal process requires you fill out the Legal Declarations and go circulate petitions. We have set up
Local Assembly District Groups on Facebook for you to join. Please do. Once inside - invite your friends to join up also. That is how we will coordinate the collection of all the Legal Declarations, and Organize Small Groups all over California. We depend on the Students of our Community Colleges and CSU and University of California to organize now, and get to work! We encourage you to buy your petitions from the Campaign so we can track and file the correct income and expense reports required by Sacramento (State FPPC), and both the Los Angeles and San Francisco County Fair Political Practices Commissions. For more information, please contact our Regional Field Directors and Zone Field Directors until we can secure volunteer Assembly District Community Field Organizers. There names, email addresses, and phone numbers are posted on the local Facebook Groups for each Assembly District.
We are out of time. We have posted the printer definition files here on our website for you to use as well. Here are the three files you will need to down load for your own printing expense. These are from copies as our first generation printer files are being held by the printer until we pay for the petitions we printed last August 28th. When we receive money on line, we will pay and ship what we printed, as quickly as you place your orders. If you want to read the Press Files or use them for your own printing efforts, here they are. There are three files. You will need them all. When we pay the printer, we will replace these files with the original Pre-Press Files we ordered and paid for last August.
Again, these are second generation printer definition files. We will replace these links with the original first generation printer specification files as the pdf content here, as soon as we pay the printer for the first press run, that was ready to ship on August 28th. We are still short the same $700 as of Friday October 16th that we have been short for over a month. Shipping what we have to the organizers who are waiting still, will cost another $500.
Please order your printed petitions from the campaign. But since you do not know us, and so many seem to distrust the validity of this hard work, go ahead and print your own if you must. The two Petitions are for 8.5 x 14 size legal paper. Our petitions are printed front and back to save paper and costs. The signature page must be stapled to the actual proposed law on every petition. So Initiative 09-0018 will require two sheets of paper, printed front and back and stapled. Initiative 09-0019 will require three sheets of paper, printed front and back and stapled.
If the full text of the law is not stapled to the signature page on both petitions in a petition set, all those signatures will be disqualified as improper form.
If the Legal Declaration was signed after the petitions were circulated, those petitions will be disqualified as they did not follow the printed letter of the Elections Law.
No one can use the information on any petition for any other purpose than to qualify our initiatives for the Ballot. Violation of this law is a criminal misdemeanor.
Failure to return signed petitions to the campaign by January 7th, 2010 and for legal filing on January 8th, 2010 is a felony. This is not a joke. Who ever signs has the right to have their signature of endorsement counted. Blocking this will of any voter is a felony.
As the author of both Initiatives, I ask you now, don't you think it is time for the people of California to foreclose on our Government that no longer represents the best interests of the people? We need to repossess our ownership of our public house and our government. We need to re-frame out State for the 21st Century and beyond - for everybody. We need to start fresh. What we have now does not work, and is beyond repair. We need a new constitution.
So - there you have it. We can do this - if you only would believe and do your best......
